


That's Not What Happened

by toyhto



Series: Something to Care About [3]
Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25557748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toyhto/pseuds/toyhto
Summary: Somewhere far, years later.
Relationships: Bane (DCU)/John Blake
Series: Something to Care About [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849414
Comments: 16
Kudos: 82





	That's Not What Happened

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel (and the last story in the series). A kind of epilogue too. Definitely isn't going to make sense unless you've read the earlier parts of the series.
> 
> I don't exactly know how this series happened? I watched The Dark Knight Rises and then, suddenly, while I was still watching it, I found myself searching Bane/John Blake fics, and then found myself writing one, because I just wanted to try it, and, you know, these two boys as a romance is just a paradox. Very fascinating. Also the reason why this story is not a romance. 
> 
> I'll be on [tumblr](http://toyhto.tumblr.com), reblogging nice pictures, and quite possibly silently planning new Bane/Blake stories.

John has been in Marrakech for two days, when someone breaks into his room.  
  
It’s the middle of the night. He sits up, grabs his gun and then freezes. The other man moves silently through the room and stops at the side of the bed. He waits. The man sits down on the edge of the mattress and it creaks.  
  
“Take off the hood,” John says. It’s dark but not that dark. He’s only wearing boxers.  
  
Bane pushes the hood off. He’s tied a black cloth to cover the down half of his face.  
  
“That too,” John says.  
  
Bane unwraps the cloth. The mask looks exactly the same. John wants to rip it off.  
  
“What’re you doing here?” Bane asks. His voice is the same too. At first, John tried to forget. But Bane’s voice was everywhere. On the radio, on the television. In his dreams. Sometimes in his head.  
  
“You broke into my room,” he says. “Maybe I should ask _you._ ”  
  
Bane just looks at him. HIs eyes, too, are the same. There were a lot of pictures about him in the newspapers after the escape, but the pictures always got his eyes wrong.  
  
John takes a deep breath. “I’m not crazy.”  
  
“Sure,” Bane says and shifts on the mattress. He looks too big to be sitting on the bed. Too big for the room. Just like he looked too big for John’s hallway a long time ago, too big for John’s sofa and kitchen and bedroom.  
  
“I heard rumors,” John says. At least this part he can explain. “Well, maybe not even rumors. But I kept tracking… every kind of underground criminal activity that I could. I thought you’d have to show up somewhere eventually. And then there was this, I don’t know, speculation about the drug trade in North Africa -”  
  
Bane breathes out, and the sound startles him.  
  
“You’re wrong,” Bane says, watching him, and he tries to sit straight on the bed and look like he’s not intimidated by this man. He saved Bane’s life once. He kept Bane in his home. He asked Bane to fuck him. There’s no fucking reason for him to get nervous about the metallic sound of Bane’s breathing, even if it’s been years since he’s heard it. “And you’re an idiot,” Bane adds. “I don’t have anything to do with the drug trade in North Africa.”  
  
John blinks. “Then why -”  
  
“Why am I sitting on your bed?” Bane pauses. “You’ve been trying to track me down. It was never going to work out. And it was getting kind of sad to watch.”  
  
John thinks about it, or tries to. One of the things he apparently had forgotten was how difficult it is to _think_ when Bane is right there, next to him. “What do you mean, watch?”  
  
“Nothing,” Bane says, watching him, “I mean nothing. Because there’s no reason why _I_ would’ve been trying to track you down. It was pretty obvious you wouldn’t want to see me again.”  
  
John sighs. “No, it wasn’t.”  
  
“It took me a while to get far enough that I could stop and try to… check on you. But then I did. On Google.”  
  
“Well,” John says, “there’s a lot about me on Google.”  
  
Bane stares at him.  
  
“Listen,” he says and rubs his nose, “I’m not saying that I wasn’t fucking angry at you. I _was._ The whole time. I still am. And not only because… not only because ever since you… _used_ me to get out of there, that’s the only thing that people in Gotham think about when they hear my name. I tried to stay there, but I just couldn’t. No one looked me in the eyes anymore. Except for the ones that thought I wanted it, and who thought that I helped you to escape.”  
  
“They’re wrong. You couldn’t have done anything to stop me. I had my hand on your throat.”  
  
“Yeah,” he says slowly. “So you did.”  
  
Bane looks away from him. He clears his throat. Through the window, he can hear the distant sounds of a conversation in a language he doesn’t speak.  
  
“Your injuries healed pretty well, right?”  
  
“Yes,” Bane says immediately. “You did a good job.”  
  
John nods. “And you haven’t gotten involved in drug trade?”  
  
“No.” Bane’s quiet for a moment. “You’re living in San Francisco.”  
  
“Yeah. It’s a nice place. It’s… I changed my name. And I’m a teacher now. In high school. And…”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“I have a boyfriend.”  
  
“I _know_ ,” Bane says. “I’ve seen pictures. Congratulations.”  
  
“We have a cat.”  
  
“I’m sure you’re going to take good care of it.”  
  
“He’s a bit upset that I won’t tell him how I realized I like men.”  
  
He’s not sure if Bane’s eyes look amused or worried. Either one of those feelings is pretty hard to imagine. But he’s been imagining a lot of things since the day when Bane dragged him naked out of the prison and through the streets and sewers of Gotham and then left him there.  
  
“I don’t know why I’m here,” he says after a short silence. “I don’t know why I wanted to see you. I just… I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Sometimes I think you used me. Or that I used you. Or that I was trying to get my revenge on you. Or that I was traumatized or psychotic or something and didn’t know what I was doing. Or that I really tried to kill you, I just was very bad at it. Or that I really wanted to save you. That maybe I…”  
  
“It’s not that.”  
  
“Maybe I fell in love with you.”  
  
“You didn’t,” Bane says, staring at him. “That’s not what happened, John.”  
  
“You used to call me Robin.”  
  
Bane blinks. “Everyone calls you Robin now.”  
  
“Yeah. I needed the change. It made sense.” John bites his lip. “How do you know that’s not what happened?”  
  
“I just know.”  
  
“You can’t know that.”  
  
“I think,” Bane says slowly, “we were just trying to break each other. That’s not _love._ ”  
  
John opens his mouth and then closes it again. He wants to ask what Bane knows of love. _He_ sometimes thinks he barely knows anything about love, and he’s been in a steady relationship for four years now. They have a house, a backyard, and a _cat._ They’ve talked about children. They fight and make up, they grow tired of each other and then fall in love again. He doesn’t know what Bane’s been doing since Gotham but certainly Bane hasn’t had anything like that.  
  
He takes a deep breath. He should put the trousers on. It’s crazy that he’s talking to Bane wearing nothing but boxers. But then again, he’s pretty sure Bane would just fuck off, if he started pulling on clothes. It’s not like they’re going to have tea and chat about the old times.  
  
“Anyway,” he says. “I’ve always hoped that you’re alright. Even though I had pretty mixed feelings at first.”  
  
Bane lets out a sound that might be laughter.  
  
“And I*m happy to hear you aren’t involved in the drug trade.”  
  
“I’m retired.” Bane glances at him. “I wanted you to be alright too. I didn’t mean to break you.”  
  
“You didn’t.”  
  
“Bullshit.”  
  
John straightens his back. “I’m here.”  
  
“Exactly,” Bane says. “Go home. Go to your boyfriend.”  
  
“I’m going to,” John says. “But -”  
  
Bane stands up.  
  
“Wait,” John says, his voice coming out thin. _Fucking hell._ “Why didn’t you kill me? You could’ve. You had killed so many people. You were… you could’ve just killed me.”  
  
For a moment he thinks Bane isn’t going to answer. Then Bane turns to him slowly and looks at him, and he has to tilt his head back to meet Bane’s eyes. He wants to stand up, but he would end up right in Bane’s personal space then. He can’t do that. He doesn’t know what would happen then.  
  
“I don’t know,” Bane says. “I just liked you.”  
  
  
**  
  
**  
  
**  
  
  
They get married two years later. Then they buy a new house, and get another cat. They try to adopt a child but it’s complicated and years go by. There are days when John kind of hates his job a little and thinks about how much better things would be if he could still be a cop. But that was another life. And there are days when he wakes up to Joe petting his hair and everything is almost perfect. The sun is shining through the curtains. There are a lot of days when the sun is shining in San Francisco.  
  
And once in a while, John gets a postcard with nothing written on it.


End file.
